Editor's Note

The Charge

Alex works nights…unfortunately, nothing else about this movie
does.

The Case

Alex used to be a good cop—conscientious, detail-oriented, and sharp.
But during a botched raid on a warehouse, the noble police officer learned an
awful truth. The recent killings in his city were not the work of some mass
murderer. No, actual vampires had taken over the town, targeting anyone with a
heartbeat and a healthy supply of blood.

Obsessed with catching and slaying this supernatural scourge, Alex ignores
his duties, both professionally and personally. Fast forward ten years, and the
now-divorced derelict spends his days plotting his revenge and his nights
exacting said payback. When his former partner, now a member of the undead,
returns, hellbent on performing a strange ritual that will bring pure evil into
the world, Alex is on the case. But he will soon learn that the past is never
far behind, as his daughter Victoria and her bookworm friend Claudia get caught
up in the paranormal plot of Jacob and his immortal mistress Xan. It will take
all of Alex's skills to finally break the Blood Bound existence they all
have.

Somewhere buried deep inside its un-involving and uninteresting narrative,
Blood Bound might actually have a decent idea. Oh, sure, it's covered up
in enough vampire hooey to give Anne Rice palpitations and brings absolutely
nothing new to the entire neck-biter genre, but one could easily envision a film
where a familial-like vendetta causes a monster hunter to pursue his unholy
prey. Oh wait, didn't they already make that movie, too? Something called Blade? In fact, it's safe to say that the makers
of Blood Bound never met a horror film—especially any offering
centering on that old claret lover Dracula—that they didn't feel deserved
to be revered, referenced, or just ripped off. Then, for a little added
exploitation fun, they'll include some lesbian lovemaking and a scant few shots
of naked titties. Yee-haw! If all of that sounds strangely familiar, it's
because nothing here is new, novel, fresh, inventive, or inviting. As a matter
of fact, a low-budget film like this argues that the vampire genre in general is
more or less played out. When true fans can't find a way to make such macabre
material original and exciting, you know a cinematic category is more or less
dead.

The amateurish acting doesn't help matters much. Most homemade horror films
rely on friends, relatives, crew, and random passersby to flesh out their casts,
and Blood Bound is no different. As our so-called hero, Alex Szele is
supposed to sell us on his character's decades-long struggle with evil. Instead
of coming off like Chuck Heston circa Omega Man, we get a disheveled
shell of a man, someone for whom bad personal hygiene is a personality trait.
Similarly, John Hermann is supposed to give his former partner/reluctant leader
an air of mystery and moroseness. In the end, however, his vamp looks more like
a Blitz kid tired out after grooving on one too many Spandau Ballet tracks.

The women fair a little worse. Mary E. Morales as the level-headed—and
therefore guaranteed to go through the biggest annoying character
arc—Claudia is fine, up until the moment she turns vein drainer. Then it's
all overly broad eye acting. As Xan (short for Alexandria), Toni Martin
expresses each and every emotion like it was part of some skillful stripper
seduction, while Amanda Kuchta makes our mandatory plot catalyst—Alex's
daughter Victoria—into a walking ad for Girls Gone Wild: The Obnoxious
Edition.

While it seems unfair to pick on such tired performances, the screenplay's
not offering any cinematic salvation. The dialogue, even delivered in a
pre-community college kind of emoting, runs the gamut from good to grating, with
a lot of supposedly prophetic lines coming off as stiff and stilted. Credited to
our own Judge Kerry Birmingham and his writing partner Joel Zawada (with some
help from Mason Booker and Jared Stepp), the narrative frequently stops dead so
that pointless exchanges that add nothing to the storyline can occur. After the
fourth or fifth one, we stop caring if Alex will defeat Xan and Jacob, or
whether Vicky and her pappy will reunite. Add in an odd priest who is probably
fashioned after a certain "Me and Bobby McGee" songwriter from a
Wesley Snipes flick, and you've got nothing but routine spills and chills. It's
never easy to knock a solely independent effort, especially one where everyone
appears happy to be part of the production and spirits—if not production
values—were very high indeed. But Blood Bound doesn't have a unique
story to tell. Instead, it lifts too many moments from other movies to stand on
its own. Not even the Scarface-like sequence where a
vampire gets a chainsaw to the skull will stir fright fans.

As for the DVD itself, it's too bad the filmmakers didn't have as much fun
with the motion picture they were making as they do with the digital packaging
and presentation. From subtitles that continue on long after the dialogue is
over (and contain such classic quotes as "grkkkulle" when a vampire
gets a stake in the heart) to four separate commentary tracks (one each for
director, director of photography, the writers, and the producers), this is one
tricked-out aluminum disc. The deleted scenes are somewhat interesting, the
blooper reel is all joking and juvenilia, and the alternate ending is just a gag
tacked on to the movie's fisticuff finale. As for the alternate narrative
tracks, each one has its own unique style. All are entertaining, and provide
some intriguing information about the film's creation and numerous pitfalls. As
with other outsider efforts, the participants here are clearly students of the
medium. Too bad they couldn't put more of their knowledge toward a better
feature film.

Blood Bound is nothing you haven't seen before and, after a single
viewing, you probably won't want to revisit it again. Guilty.